December 1
by Rowan Rose
Summary: December 1: "I know we hate each other but it's Christmas Eve and your flight was cancelled please come inside."


I'm starting a series of Stucky AU one-shots for Christmas. One for every day though Christmas (hopefully, I have finals but I will try for one a day). The AU's come mostly from a list of Christmas AU's I read once.

"i know we hate each other but it's christmas eve and your flight was cancelled please come inside"

* * *

To say that Bucky disliked Steve Rogers-the man who lived one door down from him-would be a severe understatement. It wasn't that Steve was jus a horrible person or a jerk, _that_ Bucky could handle; the problem was that Steve was just so damn happy all the time.

Steve was full of smiles and helping old ladies and sunshine and rainbows or something gross and mushy like that. He probably went around kissing babies and resuming kittens from trees in his spare time. He and Bucky had only had a few conversations since Bucky moved in but through them all he was in an insufferably good mood.

It wasn't just that he was always happy, no that would have been to easy to ignore or glare away, the thing that made it so much worse was that, physically, Steve was pretty much as perfect as anyone can get. He was tall and sturdy-the "a bus could run into me and it would be worse off" kind of sturdy. His eyes were the worst part. They were such a light blue that Bucky could just stare into them until he felt in love. It was disgusting.

What killed Bucky the most was that, as far as he knew, Steve had no reason to be the way he was. He lived in the same type of crappy Brooklyn apartment with bad water pressure and shitty heating. From what Bucky could tell from phone conversations he had overheard-it wasn't eavesdropping, the walls were just so thin that Bucky couldn't help but overhear every word that was being said if he sat in the chair by the wall-he had few friends, the only people he ever talked to was someone named Sam and occasionally he yelled at a Tony.

He also had a crappy job that payed shit and had sucky hours-which he may or may not have overheard while Steve had been on the phone with Sam. _And_ -this was the kicker-he was lacking in the romance part of his life; he never brought anyone home (or at least Bucky never heard any other voices in his apartment) and he only ever left his apartment for work, his six in the morning runs (yet another thing to hate about Steve), and every other Thursday for groceries-yes Bucky had his schedule memorized, no Bucky was not a stalker.

So Bucky kind of hated Steve-in a "I don't know whether to punch you in the face for being so peppy all the time or shove you against the wall and kiss you senseless" kind of way. So he was uncharacteristically happy when he overheard Steve on the phone with Sam early one morning before his run (gross) talking about his plans to fly out to DC on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas Day and New Years with Sam.

Some pertinent information to share with the class would be that what Bucky had found during his three years living next to Steve was that while normal Steve was annoying-Holiday Steve was Hell. His cheer became ten times more cheery and Bucky spent the entire month of December banging on their shared wall yelling at Steve to turn the music down. Christmas eve and Christmas day were the worst. Steve always had a party in his apartment and invited everyone in the building-mostly old ladies on Christmas Eve. He also got a gift for everyone, yes, even Bucky, that he passed out at an ungodly hour every Christmas morning.

Bucky, who while by no means was a recluse, valued his alone time and Christmas was one of these times. Natasha and Clint had some kind of annoying married people tradition that they had on Christmas that they always invited him to, but he declined every year (he went the first time they asked and will never make that mistake again). Bucky also never had to work on Christmas-he tended a bar down the street-because his boss spent Christmas day with his family and expected his workers to do the same. So Bucky spend Christmas alone, snuggled in the big chair he found in a dumpster, reading mystery novels and drinking apple cider.

Steve brought it upon himself to knock on Bucky's door every hour, on the hour and ask if Bucky was going to come to his apartment for cookies or to watch _It's a Wonderful Life_ with him so that Bucky would not have to spend Christmas day alone, which would be sweet if it wasn't so annoying. He wasn't lonely, he was content being alone.

So Bucky was excited to have a Christmas free, he could sleep in and just sit and read all day without having to hear Christmas music through the wall.

Bucky's mildly good "no Steve for Christmas" mood even lasted through the Christmas Eve party and Steve's never ending requests for him to attend-which he ignored. He was especially happy when Steve came over to hand him his small present for the year since he would be leaving in a few hours. Bucky went to sleep with a smile on his lips dreaming of the peaceful Christmas to come in the morning.

* * *

When Bucky woke the next morning he stumbled out of bed to get himself a cup of coffee so that he could function for the day. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as his coffee brewed and tried to make out the numbers on the microwave. It was 10:32 when he poured himself his first cup before snuggling in his chair by the window. He was a little surprised to see nothing but white out of his widow; the snow was coming down in such large amounts that it blocked nearly the whole view of the outside. _Good thing I thought to stock up in case something like this happened._ He thought to himself as he snuggled further into his chair and watched the snow come down.

Bucky broke from his thoughts as he heard gentle music drifting from the apartment beside his. _Oh no._ He thought as he recognized what the music was: Adele. After moving in, Bucky quickly learned the two things to know about Steve: he didn't know how to talk to women to save his life and he only listened to Adele if he was in a very bad mood.

Bucky cursed to himself as he realized what this meant. Steve wouldn't be flying to DC and so Bucky was stuck with him.

For the next few hours Bucky ignored the sounds of Adele drifting through the wall, but around noon he had heard _Hello_ 13 times in a row and was starting to feel bad for Steve; he was obviously looking forward to spending his holiday with his friend. Bucky sighed and tried to talk himself out of what he was about to do but he was up and out the door before he could even formulate a plan on what he was going to do.

He stood outside of Steve's door staring at the 104 that was on the front for a few seconds before retreating back to his own apartment and taking a deep breath before heading back out and knocking on the door before he could talk himself out of it. When the door didn't open immediately, Bucky started to scurry back to his own apartment before he heard the nob turning and was started still in front of the door.

It was obvious on Steve's face when he opened the door that Bucky was the last person he was expecting to see. He gave a weak smile and said, "I'm sorry about the music, I'll turn to off if you want."

"What?" Bucky said stupidly before sharing his head. "Actually I was going to-if you wanted that is-to maybe..." Bucky trailed off staring at Steve's feet, rubbing at the back of his neck.

Steve gave him a confused look. "I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to say."

Bucky dropped his hands to his sides and took a deep breath. "Would you like to come over to my place? I assume your flight was cancelled because you are still here and listening to Adele, which you only do when you are seriously upset. So since we are obviously depressingly sad young men who are both spending Christmas alone, we could at least be alone together." He said in one breath before letting out a nervous chuckle before glaring at the floor.

Steve blinked in surprise and was silent for a few moments before saying in a confused voice, "You want me...to come to your place for Christmas?"

"I knew it was bad idea. Forget about it." Bucky said, turning to go back to his own apartment.

"Wait!" Steve sad. Bucky turned and flinched minutely when he saw a large smile that had made its way onto Steve's face. "There is no way I'm going to let you get out of this so easily."

"I assumed as much." Bucky muttered to himself as he turned around. "I only have two rules; first: I will not watch _It's a Wonderful Life_ with you and second: no more Adele."

"I think I can handle that" Steve said. "Do you have any plans for food, or are we left to the bare remnants of my fridge because I am sad to say that I am seriously lacking in the food department. I didn't think to stock up because I didn't think I would be home."

Bucky panicked for a second. _Shit, I didn't think this far ahead._ "Uh, I have three hot pockets, some bacon, and half of a pecan pie that my friend made for me; will that work for you?"

With Steve's eager nod they headed into Bucky's apartment. _I probably should have cleaned up a little bit._ He thought as they stepped through the door. There was a few seconds of tense silence in which Bucky shuffled through the kitchen and Steve awkwardly stood near the door watching Bucky work.

Bucky broke the silence when he had everything laid on the counter. "So...Adele?" He asked with a smirk.

Steve rolled his eyes. "It's better than Celine Dion."

Bucky was shocked for a second. He never told anyone that, much less Steve. Then he remembered how thin the walls were, of course Steve could also hear him. "Insulting my taste in music, I see. You are a terrible guest."

Steve put his hands up in a surrender fashion, "You started it."

They looked at each other for a moment before bursting out into uncontrollable laughter.

* * *

After they ate, they sat on Bucky's lumpy couch and watched the Charlie Brown Christmas while they argued over various things.

"But does Gorilla Grodd have a human soul or a gorilla soul?" Steve said. "That would make a difference, right? Otherwise Voldemort could have made his horcruxes out of house elves or the sorting hat or cats or something. It has to be human. Otherwise there would be a Gorilla Voldemort."

"I think that because he is capable of human-like reasoning that Gorilla Grodd could theoretically have a human soul. So I think it is probable that Voldemort could make a horcrux by killing him, " Bucky said before he broke into giggles-the manly kind. "This might be the weirdest conversation I've had in a long time. Natasha only likes to debate about things that actually matter and Clint is no fun since he got married."

"I know what you mean. It's been hard finding people who are interested in the same things. Everyone I work with seems so concerned about acting like an adult that they lose all the joy in life."

Bucky nodded as he took a drink of cider. "What do you do?"

"I work in security, just small things, but it is always so uptight and serious. No one ever smiles, you know." He said.

 _That explains a_ _lot._ Bucky thought.

They stayed in silence for the rest of the movie before Steve suggested they play Uno and then the game was on. At one point Bucky grabbed a bottle of vodka to start putting in his cider and he and Steve began playing. They laughed and talked about their lives as they played and drank, and by the time they were done, they were both warm and giggly from the vodka and companionship.

When Bucky won his sixth game in a row with a sloppy grin, Steve grabbed the deck and glared right into Bucky's eyes as he threw the cards into the air. As the cards rained down on them, they once again broke into giggles, grabbing onto each other's shoulders and wiping stray tears. They picked up the cards and sat back down on the couch.

"On that note, I should probably head home." Steve said. "I actually have work in the morning."

"I'll walk you back." Bucky said as he hauled himself up before stretching a hand out to Steve. He felt tingles as Steve's warm hand connected with his.

They stumbled out into the hallway and to Steve's door. Steve took a step inside before turning back around to face Bucky. They stood awkwardly at his door for a few minutes before Bucky, fueled by apple cider and Vodka, grabbed the front of Steve's shirt and pulled him in for a drunken kiss.

It was sloppy and tasted like cider, but Bucky would swear up and down that he could see sparks. It was over nearly as quickly as it started as Bucky pulled back to whisper "Merry Christmas" to Steve before hurrying back to his own room.

Steve grabbed his arm before he could make it and gave one of his obnoxiously happy smiles before cupping Bucky's face in his hands and leaning in for another kiss. After several beautiful seconds he broke away and leaned his forehead on Bucky's. "Merry Christmas to you too." He said before he backed into his apartment and shut the door.

Bucky stood outside his door with a dopey smile on his face and a flutter in his heart.

Okay, maybe he didn't hate Steve.


End file.
